The sound of containers being sliced in half echoed across the entire dock. Anna was relentlessly pursuing Vikram, tearing through everything in his path with his billhook.
Vikram glanced back in disbelief.
"How did he suddenly become this powerful? What kind of Mudra is he using?"
Anna unleashed another neon-blue slash directly at Vikram. He barely managed to dodge it and sprinted toward a nearby container, kicking it with such force that it flew straight at Anna. Without hesitation, Anna cleaved it cleanly in two.
Anna sneered, his voice echoing with madness,
"Ask the blood soaking the ground who the true king is! The sweat pouring from your body as you run from me — it's proof that I'm the strongest! There should only be one chosen one. You? You're nothing but an eyesore. Die, Vikraaaam!"
With a ferocious roar, Anna lunged at Vikram. The two clashed violently — hand against billhook in a brutal melee. Vikram parried Anna's lightning-fast strikes with his bare hands. If not for his Vajra-hardened bones, he would've been dead already. His face, arms, and legs were covered in cuts, blood dripping from each wound.
Then, with a sudden burst of strength, Vikram caught Anna's billhook mid-swing — and froze. A childlike, twisted whisper echoed in his mind from the weapon itself:
"Ahhh... uhm... ahhh... how... how... how good it feels... bwahhhh... bwahhhhh..."
Vikram's eyes widened in horror.
"Anna… is there something speaking to you? Some kind of supernatural being? How did you get this power?"
Anna grinned and grabbed Vikram by the throat, lifting him off the ground with ease.
"When I was dying," he growled, "I suddenly knew everything about my billhook — its scent, its taste, its weight… how many times it's been chipped, how often it drank blood… even its melting point. And with that knowledge… I awakened its hidden power."
With a fierce cry, Vikram launched a devastating kick straight into Anna's face. The impact sent Anna flying across the dock, crashing into a container with such force that he got embedded into its steel walls. Dazed, Anna tried to pull himself free—but before he could even react, he saw Vikram charging at him at full speed, like a lion closing in on its prey.
Boom!
Vikram's punch landed square on Anna's chest, hurling him through the air and smashing him through ten containers in a row.
Not stopping there, Vikram turned toward a stack of nearby containers and began punching them one after another, sending them hurtling toward Anna like missiles.
"I don't need to hold back anymore," Vikram growled. "He doesn't have any kind of Mudra!"
Coughing and bruised, Anna rose to one knee. His bloodied face twisted in fury as he saw the rain of metal containers descending on him. With a roar, he unleashed a massive horizontal slash. The energy from his strike expanded rapidly, growing wider and larger with each passing second — a monstrous wave, like a tsunami made of raw destruction, racing toward Vikram.
In desperation, Vikram hurled containers into the incoming wave, but they were shredded to dust — disintegrated as if fed into a giant grinding machine.
His instincts screamed.
Without a second thought, Vikram turned and sprinted, running for his life as the unstoppable wave surged toward him.
Vikram, panting as he sprinted away from the monstrous wave:
"Power! What should I do?!" he screamed, desperation lacing his voice.
A calm, oddly playful voice echoed inside him — Power:
"Hmm... let's see... Ah! Climb to a high point and jump over the wave."
Vikram barked back, half-panicked:
"Are you mad?! It's getting bigger every second! What if it grows taller than whatever high point I find before I even get there?!"
Power snapped, offended:
"Don't talk to me like that! You should be grateful I'm even answering your desperate little prayer. And by the way, you can jump up to two meters, remember?"
There was a long pause.
Then Power's voice returned, colder now:
"You forgot… didn't you?"
Vikram coughed awkwardly, embarrassed:
"N-No, I didn't! You're amazing, truly... oh my goddess, how lucky I am to have you as my assistant — I mean, my mentor! Kind of like... an inner demon?"
Power, scandalized:
"Inner demon?! How ungrateful can you be?! And disgusting — calling me a demon?! Have you no shame?"
Vikram, confused:
"What? But people like calling themselves demons… it sounds cool!"
Power, utterly baffled:
"WHAT?! Vikram, we need to have a serious talk after this."
Climbing atop the remains of a sliced crane, Vikram looked ahead. The massive neon-blue wave was approaching, tearing everything in its path to shreds. It was like watching the ocean itself rise up in fury.
He exhaled sharply.
"Okay…" he whispered, crouched... then leapt with everything he had.
For a breathtaking moment, Vikram soared above the wave — the energy pulsing beneath his feet like a glowing sea of death. He was nearly on the other side…
But then —
Shhhhk!
A slash cut through the air — Anna's surprise strike hit Vikram right across the ribs. Though his Vajra bones remained intact, the skin above was sliced open. Blood sprayed as the force of the blow knocked him off balance.
From nearly ten meters in the air, Vikram came crashing down — hard — hitting the ground with a thud that echoed across the dock.
Vikram lay sprawled on the ground, barely conscious. His vision flickered, everything spinning in a haze. A distorted noise buzzed in his ears — like a glitching TV signal layered over a low, humming bass.
It pulsed.
Hummmmm... hmmm... krsssshh...
As he struggled to cling to awareness, the noise began to fade...
Then, a familiar voice broke through, sharp with desperation:
"Vikram! Vikram! VIKRAM! Wake up! You still have Feathered Nightmare to defeat — how can you die to some fisherman like Anna?! That wave's still coming — wake uuuuuuup!"
Vikram groaned, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His body was screaming in pain — deep cuts marked his arms, legs, cheek, and now his ribs. But still, he forced himself up… barely standing. His limbs trembled, his breathing ragged.
Ahead of him, the massive wave — that monstrous neon-blue slash — barreled forward, obliterating everything in its path.
He wiped the blood from his chin and muttered weakly,
"Power… you said my bones are indestructible, right?"
Power's voice answered, soft but pained:
"Yes… they are."
Vikram clenched his fists, took a stance — his left foot planted forward, right leg behind. As the towering wave came within striking distance, he screamed from the depths of his soul:
"WRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!"
He punched.
The impact was earth-shattering.
The wave came to a halt — right there, against his fist — the air trembled with the collision. The skin on Vikram's fingers began to peel away from the searing energy. Blood streamed down his arm.
But he held the line.
The wave grew, still pressing forward with unimaginable force. The ground beneath Vikram's feet cracked — spiderweb fractures spreading out as if the earth itself could no longer bear the weight of this struggle.
An unstoppable force…
had met an immovable object.
From a distance, Anna watched, eyes narrowed in disbelief.
The wave hadn't moved forward an inch.
"Tch… What will it take to kill you?" he muttered under his breath.
With a furious snarl, Anna swung his billhook again — unleashing ten more horizontal slashes, each infused with the same devastating neon-blue energy.
The new waves collided with the main one, merging into it.
The resulting impact rippled like a shockwave through the already titanic force pressing against Vikram.
The sudden surge threw Vikram off-balance — just slightly. His foot slipped.
He was forced to pull his left leg backward to stay grounded.
But even that slight shift gave the wave momentum.
It advanced.
Vikram gritted his teeth as his entire body was pushed backward, his fist still braced against the wave. His feet dragged across the cracked concrete, leaving grooves behind.
He wasn't stopping the wave anymore — he was being pushed by it.
And it kept growing.
Now, the wave towered fifty-five meters high, glowing with an unearthly neon light, pulsing like a living entity, threatening to devour everything.
From afar, Samradh, Ansh, the sniper team, and both the police force and gang members watched in stunned silence.
All of them, united by one feeling — awe-struck horror.
They could see the silhouette of Vikram, a lone figure being pushed back by a glowing wall of death. And yet, he still hadn't fallen.
Vikram's body trembled as the wave pushed him further and further back — until suddenly, he lifted one leg and slammed it into the ground with everything he had.
CRACK!
The earth beneath his foot shattered as he regained his stance, halting the monstrous wave's momentum.
He let out a roar from the depths of his soul, his voice echoing like thunder across the dock:
"WRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!"
With all his strength, he drove his fist forward — not to hold the wave, but to strike it down.
At that exact moment, something awoke inside him.
His pupils narrowed, transforming — golden rings spun into existence within them, forming serpent-like eyes, glowing with divine fury.
BOOOOOOM!!
His fist collided with the towering wave — and the unthinkable happened.
The so-called wall of death—the unstoppable neon-blue wave—shattered.
Energy exploded outward in every direction. The dock shook violently as a neon storm of pure destruction ripped through the air. The ground cracked, debris flew, and the sky itself seemed to darken and pulse.
A swirling tempest of raw power surged from the point of impact, blinding everyone momentarily.
---
Through the eye of the storm, Anna stared, eyes wide with disbelief.
And then… he saw him.
From the center of the chaos, Vikram walked forward — unharmed, but completely transformed.
Intense golden energy poured out of his body like a raging current. Each step shook the ground.
His eyes — those glowing serpent-like golden eyes — burned with terrifying clarity.
And upon his shoulders…
He now wore a flowing red cloak, its edges dancing with divine wind, and atop its hood was the head of a lion, crafted in majestic golden fur .